Is Today's Pokemon X and Y Announcement Gamebreaking? on Aug 09 by O'C

Yesterday, leaked CoroCoro scans showed – among other things – Mega Pokemon, which are effectively new evolutions of popular Pokemon. Now the magazine has hit shelves, it been confirmed that these Mega transformations will endow Pokemon with increased stats and new abilities, taking some of the best Pokemon in the game and making them even better.

Consider Blaziken, for example. Pokemon Black and White introduced hidden abilities, or ‘dream world abilities,’ which increased the competitive viability of a number of Pokemon; Ditto would not need to spend a turn transforming when switched in, and Dragonite gained Multiscale, which significantly reduced damage taken. Blaziken was controversially given ‘Speed Boost’, which gave it a free boost to speed (surprise surprise) at the end of every turn; unsurprisingly, this left it absurdly powerful.

Smogon University, the leading competitive Pokemon website, classified Blaziken as a member of its ‘uber’ tier. To the layman, this is as good as being banned, as it sits alongside Pokemon such as Arceus in a tier full of legendaries.

Forging new ground as the first starter Pokemon to ever become Uber, Blaziken appears to have a lot to live up to in the Uber metagame. However, it is perfectly capable of functioning well in Ubers, as thanks to Speed Boost, Blaziken will become nearly impossible to revenge kill as the boosts accumulate.

Yesterday’s scans showed MegaBlaziken, the mega version of Blaziken. This also has the Speed Boost ability, and if its stats are increased, Nintendo may well have made one of the best Pokemon in the game even better. Lucario, if not Uber, is also very highly rated; its Mega Pokemon ability is Adaptability, endowing it with boosted Fighting and Steel type moves. Pokemon connoisseurs should be familiar with the concept of STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus), which boosts the power of moves used by Pokemon of the same type by 1.5x. Adaptability boosts STAB to 2x, making every unresisted hit effectively super effective (and making super effective hits devastating). Again, this makes an already great Pokemon even better – and now the full magazine has been revealed, it’s also been confirmed that Lucario’s already gargantuan attack stat will be boosted in mega form. Also worth noting is that not all Pokemon will come with the potential to become a Mega Pokemon, meaning no mega Shuckle.

That Ampharos has SWEET hair, though.

However, if you were worried about the news that came with the Pokemon X and Y leak, don’t fret – apparently, Mega transformations happen in battle, requiring an item called the Mega Stone (a derivative of the far more crippling Kidney Stone). Not all of these of these are not available with the game itself, requiring participation in special distribution events. Additionally, Mega Stones are held items, which limits the utility of a Pokemon quite considerably, as held items are very important in competitive play. If they are potentially gamebreaking, they will likely be banned out of existence fairly quickly or relegated to their own special league in online battles. If they’re not gamebreaking, Lucario with dreadlocks is a pretty rad curiousity, as far as I’m concerned.

Pokemon X and Y look like they’re shaping up into a really interesting pair of games, and we’re really excited for them here at Rice Digital. How do you feel about mega Pokemon though? Are you worried about things becoming a little too Digimon? Let us know in the comments below.

Other things you might like:

Am I the only one wishing their was a MegaMagikarp?
While yes, it evolves into Gyarados, it still would be interesting to see how much improved Magikarp can be, as when you think about it, Magikarp really is one of the most potential ability pokémon out there.

It could incorporate EV’s and IV’s for Magikarp, and maybe change splash into surf, or something like that? Though retain the PP of splash!

But yeah, I’m kind of sceptical of the balancing. While I don’t play competitively, and yes, having a Pokémon with uber effects can feel insanely awesome, I can’t help but feel it should be left out of the competitive scene, unless they find a way to somehow balance it for actual competitive play.

Hawk Ward

Am I the only one wishing their was a MegaMagikarp?
While yes, it evolves into Gyarados, it still would be interesting to see how much improved Magikarp can be, as when you think about it, Magikarp really is one of the most potential ability pokémon out there.

It could incorporate EV’s and IV’s for Magikarp, and maybe change splash into surf, or something like that? Though retain the PP of splash!

But yeah, I’m kind of sceptical of the balancing. While I don’t play competitively, and yes, having a Pokémon with uber effects can feel insanely awesome, I can’t help but feel it should be left out of the competitive scene, unless they find a way to somehow balance it for actual competitive play.

Maximz

ampha is a pretty good dual screen pokemon with the volt switch attack u can setup and then switch..i personally like him hes a bit bulky, now with the mega-ampha the problem is i cant use light clay to make the screens last 8 turns which kinda sucks but he would dish out more dmg and live even longer i could prolly switch him back in more often just to setup screens again and then voltswitch for more dmg… or this might give me better options with ampha other than using him as a screener but i have a feeling it might get put into ubers which would suck cuz he looks pretty cool

Maximz

ampha is a pretty good dual screen pokemon with the volt switch attack u can setup and then switch..i personally like him hes a bit bulky, now with the mega-ampha the problem is i cant use light clay to make the screens last 8 turns which kinda sucks but he would dish out more dmg and live even longer i could prolly switch him back in more often just to setup screens again and then voltswitch for more dmg… or this might give me better options with ampha other than using him as a screener but i have a feeling it might get put into ubers which would suck cuz he looks pretty cool